BATON ROUGE — LSU football's offensive line is considered one of the best in college football coming into the 2024 season.

With four starters returning from last season's Joe Moore Award finalist group, headlined by left tackle Will Campbell and right tackle Emery Jones Jr., there's been plenty of stability along the offensive front through fall camp.

During the Tigers' 14th preseason practice Saturday morning, the line worked through a number of varying combinations with the first and second teams. That was by design as LSU head coach Brian Kelly informed reporters after practice that a "lower (gastrointestinal) bug" has been making it way around the position group.

Freshman center D.J. Chester, who has primarily been working with the first-team offensive line missed Saturday's practice due to illness. Jones also was sent home early due to illness.

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"Emery was affected greatly from (the bug) today, he was in and out, he probably shouldn't have been out there, but you couldn't keep him from practice," Kelly told reporters after practice Saturday. "That's what he was suffering from. We sent him home early. I don't know how (linebackers) Whit Weeks and West Weeks made it through practice, they had a similar bug. We've sprayed the offices, cleaned them down. But we're fighting that right now with a number of guys."

With Chester out, senior Garrett Dellinger, who has been getting reps at center in camp before Saturday, got the bulk of the work at center. Freshman Tyree Adams got work at left guard, where Dellinger usually is, with the first team offensive line.

Freshman Weston Davis, a former four-star prospect, spelled Jones when he sat out reps before leaving practice and then afterward as well.

Younger players were getting quality reps and while it didn't look great at times, Kelly said shuffling some things around were necessary for the growth of LSU's offense and the football team.

"Offensively, we were struggling in some aspects because we had some young players out there playing. You had Weston Davis matched up against (senior defensive end) Bradyn Swinson, there's going to be a there," Kelly said. "You had Paul Mubenga going against (senior defensive tackle) Jacobian Guillory, so there's going to be some issues there.

"But it's also how you build your football team's depth. You need to have those sandpaper moments, if you will, for the offense as they kind of come into their own and build depth. We know about Emery, we know what he's going to be able to do. We wanted to see (Dellinger) at the center position and gives us more depth and versatility at that position."

Kelly described LSU's 14th team practice as a whole as a "work day." While that's certainly the case for the players, it was also a notable day for the Tigers coaching staff, especially the offensive coaches, as well.

Saturday was about finding answers.

"If you're looking at it as a coach, you're able to coach off it, teach off it and help those younger guys prepare and get better. It's a great moment for our staff on the offensive side of the ball if we ever get into these situations, you have to play a game knowing you may have a potential mismatch," Kelly said. "You have to adjust accordingly. If we have a freshman tackle going against an All-SEC performer, we got to help his ass. We got to be able to do something. We can't just call plays as if that doesn't exists. That exists.

"We have to have answers."

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz atbdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: What Brian Kelly said about LSU football OL DJ Chester after practice